Statements of Support (2003-2013) / Beck, Marieluise MEP

“Mikhail Khodorkovsky has long since become a symbol for how the Russian state treats its independent critics. Hardly anyone, even in Russia, doubts the political motivation behind the trial, this second one even clearer than the first in 2005.

Now we are looking at a show of power. Khodorkovsky personifies the type of enlightened, emancipated and independent citizen that authoritarian states fear more than armies”

Marieluise Beck MEP Germany (Green Party), Spokeswoman for Eastern European Affairs, Bundestag Debate, July 2, 2009